600.15—Authorized uses of information.
(a) General.
Information contained in applications shall be used only for evaluation purposes unless such information is generally available to the public or is already the property of the Government. The Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905, prohibits the unauthorized disclosure by Federal employees of trade secret and confidential business information.
(b) Treatment of application information.
(1)
An application may include technical data and other data, including trade secrets and/or privileged or confidential commercial or financial information, which the applicant does not want disclosed to the public or used by the Government for any purpose other than application evaluation. To protect such data, the applicant should specifically identify each page including each line or paragraph thereof containing the data to be protected and mark the cover sheet of the application with the following Notice as well as referring to the Notice on each page to which the Notice applies:
Notice of Restriction on Disclosure and Use of Data
The data contained in pages ___ of this application have been submitted in confidence and contain trade secrets or proprietary information, and such data shall be used or disclosed only for evaluation purposes, provided that if this applicant receives an award as a result of or in connection with the submission of this application, DOE shall have the right to use or disclose the data herein to the extent provided in the award. This restriction does not limit the Government's right to use or disclose data obtained without restriction from any source, including the applicant.
(2)
Unless a funding opportunity announcement specifies otherwise, DOE shall not refuse to consider an application solely on the basis that the application is restrictively marked.
(3)
Data (or abstracts of data) marked with the Notice under paragraph (b)(1) of this section shall be retained in confidence and used by DOE or its designated representatives as specified in § 600.13 solely for the purpose of evaluating the proposal. The data so marked shall not be disclosed or used for any other purpose except to the extent provided in any resulting award, or to the extent required by law, including the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) ( 10 CFR part 1004 ). The Government shall not be liable for disclosure or use of unmarked data and may use or disclose such data for any purpose.